Groups Release Statements of Support for Strike, & Poster Available

Groups are sending in statements of support for the prisoners currently on hunger strike. Two are printed below, and we’ll continue to post more as we recieve them. Also, a new poster is available for mass distribution here.

The following groups are currently listed as supporters of the strike, and some have written their own statements of support (further below.)

Asheville Prison Book Program

Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights (NM)

Prison Watch Network

Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro

NC CURE

Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross (GA)

Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective

Vermont Action for Political Prisoners (VT)

Raleigh Resistance

Greensboro Legal Defense

Sin Barras (CA)

International Socialist Organization – Greensboro

Austin Prisoner Correspondence and Support (TX)

GSO Legal Defense Statement

The Greensboro Legal Defense Fund, a coalition committed to the support of
prisoners rights, would like to express it’s full support with the
prisoners on hunger strike at Bertie Correctional Institute, Scotland
Correctional Institute, and Central Prison.

We give our unrelenting support for the direct action of prisoners to
achieve their demands and call for solidarity action of those on the
outside to strengthen and hasten movement on the inside. Just as we have
seen anarchists, prison abolitionists, members of the Almighty Latin King
and Queen Nation, and others come together to demonstrate against the
tortures of solitary confinement at Central Prison on November 4th, 2011,
so should others respond to ensure the state’s human rights violations
will not go unheard.

As we write these words of support and solidarity, countless prisoners are
locked in indefinite solitary confinement, including our friend and
comrade Randolph “Paul” Kilfoil and many other members of the North
Carolina Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation who are pre-emptively
segregated by prison authorities for no other reason than their identity.
We are inspired by those prison rebels who fight on behalf of all
prisoners despite their identity or affiliations and encourage all to join
the struggle until all demands are met.

As a group that has for the last six years supported prisoners’ struggles for education, dignity, and freedom through sending literature and resources into prisons in the South, the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective expresses its full support for the struggle of hunger striking prisoners at Central Prison, Bertie Correctional, and Scotland Correctional.

The strikers’ demands for law libraries, decent food and medical care, and a hault to abuse by guards, are basic and fundamental in nature. That prisoners have to risk their lives by hunger striking in order to achieve these simple things tells us something about the nature of the prison system they are trapped in.

Beyond the question of demands, the strikers are acting to retain some level of dignity in the face of a system of solitary confinement that has devolved into torture and debasement of the worst kind. That these men have the courage to unite across lines of race, gang status, and religion to stand up for themselves inspires us, as we hope it inspires others on both sides of the wall.

Love for All Prison Rebels,

the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective

Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross Statement

The Atlanta Black Cross is an organization that seeks to support those that are imprisoned and struggling for freedom on the inside. In keeping with our goals, we would like to express our full support for the prisoners on hunger strike at Bertie Correctional Institute, Scotland Correctional Institute, and Central Prison in North Carolina.

As our mission states, “We believe that we must organize our resources to support all political prisoners if we truly wish to be their allies, and we must give something more than lip service. Organizing against our common enemy, the legal and penal system is both offensive and defensive. It is carried on by individuals, groups and among the communities. We must shed light on the atrocities and inhumanity of prisons, the righteousness of our struggle, and the necessity of full participation and support. We must organize our communities to attack the prison system as a moral and social abomination, and we must fight to free all political prisoners.”

While we continue to struggle for total freedom on the outside, we are both encouraged and energized by the struggles of the prisoners in North Carolina and also those here in Georgia because their fight continues among conditions far worse than we face on the outside.

We intend to work until all of their demands are met. We also ask for solidarity for those men in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center as they seek many of the same demands of the fellow rebels in North Carolina.

We hope to give support on the outside in whatever way we can. Everyone should plan letter writings for prisoners in your area, have Noise Demonstrations, organize Call-ins, and get with your friends and be creative. Just do something to show them your solidarity.

We must fight with them until every demand is met and until every cage is empty.